A recent digital camera has been progressively miniaturized and a portable telephone on which the digital camera is mounted to photograph the face of a user or the landscape in a neighborhood has been put to practical use. Further, to photograph both a front side and an opposite side, a method that one digital camera mounted on the portable telephone is rotated or detachably attached to the portable telephone to change its direction has been known (for instance, see Patent Document 1). However, most of the portable telephones that have been used have the cameras fixed on either the front sides or the opposite sides.
FIG. 16 shows a schematic sectional view of a usual portable telephone 200 with a digital camera. The portable telephone 200 with the digital camera supports a second casing member 214 at the hinge 213 of an end of an arm extending from a first casing member 212 so as to freely open and close. To the second casing member 214, a magnet 222 for detecting opening and closing operations, a receiver 224, a liquid crystal display device 201 viewed by an operator when the second casing member 214 is opened, a back light 209 for the liquid crystal display device 201 and a camera 230 are attached. The camera 230 is arranged so that while the user (not shown in the drawing) of the portable telephone 200 holds the portable telephone, the user can photograph the face or the user can recognize a monitor image on the liquid crystal display device 201. The liquid crystal display device 201 is driven by a driver circuit 241. The liquid crystal display device 201, the back light 209, the receiver 224 and the camera 230 are respectively connected to a flexible controlling board 216 having a branching end. The other end of the flexible controlling board 216 is connected to a main body board 215 in the first casing member 212.
The main body board 215 of the portable telephone is provided in the first casing member 212. To the main body board 215, the respective circuits of a control part 218, a memory 219 and a radio part 220, a key operating part 217, a microphone 223 and an opening and closing detecting unit 221 are attached to realize a radio communication function as the portable telephone.
In FIG. 17, the schematic block diagram of the usual portable telephone 200 having the digital camera is shown. In FIG. 17, to the control part 218, the driver circuit 241 is connected and the liquid crystal display device 201 is connected to the driver circuit 241. In the driver circuit 241, a memory part 251 for temporarily storing image information to be displayed is provided. Further, to the control part 218, the memory 219 in which the image information is stored, the back light 209 for the liquid crystal display device 201 as a completely transmitting type liquid crystal display device, the radio part 220 for performing a radio communication, the microphone 223 for transmitting voice, the receiver 224 for receiving voice, the key operating part 217, the opening and closing detecting unit 221 and the camera 230 are connected.
A photographing operation carried out by the camera 230 of the usual portable telephone 200 equipped with the digital camera will be described below. The user of the portable telephone 200 holds the first casing member 212 and opens the second casing member 214 to input a camera mode selecting signal by using the key operating unit 217 and operate a camera mode by the control part 218. When the camera mode is obtained, the user picks up an image by an image pick-up unit of the camera 230 that is not in the drawing to display a monitor image on the liquid crystal display device 201. When the user presses a shutter button serving as a camera shutter that is allocated to the ten key of the key operating unit 217, the image photographed by the camera 230 is stored in the memory 219 and the stored image is displayed on the liquid crystal display device 201. Then, when a camera mode completion signal is inputted from the key operating part 217 or the opening and closing detecting unit 221 detects that the second casing member 214 is closed, the control part 218 turns off the power of the camera 230 to complete the camera mode.
Then, the image stored in the memory 219 can be read and displayed on the liquid crystal display device 201 by operating the key operating unit 217 or transmitted to other portable telephone by using the radio part 220 or the photographed image can be printed by connecting the portable telephone 200 to a printer that is not shown in the drawing by a cable.
(Patent Document 1) JP-A-2001-245034 (Pages 3 to 4, FIG. 1)
An existing ordinary digital camera has a camera on one surface of a casing member and a monitor screen on a surface opposite to the camera. The camera has a structure in which when the user photographs an object, the user (photographer) directs the camera to the object to be photographed and views the monitor screen in the opposite side to the camera and presses a shutter button. Accordingly, when the user holds the digital camera to photograph the face of the user himself or herself, the user turns the inside of the digital camera out. In this case, since the user himself or herself is the object to be photographed, the user cannot inconveniently view the monitor screen located in the opposite side of the camera.
Especially, in the portable telephone having the digital camera on which the digital camera is mounted, even when the camera 230 and the liquid crystal display device 201 are provided on the same plane as shown in FIG. 16, operations for turning out the portable telephone having the digital came are necessary when the face of the user is photographed and when an image located in the opposite side to the face of the user is photographed. However, it is more difficult to hold the portable telephone having the digital camera under a state that the portable telephone is turned out than to hold a digital camera under the same state. Further, the shutter button is undesirably hardly pressed down.
Further, a shutter chance is taken aim at once under a camera mode, however, the chance does not come so that a next shutter chance is taken aim at. At this time, when the second casing member 214 is closed, the opening and closing detecting unit 221 detects that the second casing member 214 is closed and the control part 218 turns off the power of the camera 230 to complete the camera mode. Therefore, when the second casing member 214 is subsequently opened, the camera mode needs to be started from its setting operation so that the shutter chance is undesirably missed.
It is a first object of the present invention to provide a digital camera and a portable telephone equipped with a digital camera in which while a user views one monitor screen, the user can selectively photograph an image located in the side of the face of the user and an image located in an opposite side to the face of the user without turning out the digital camera or the portable telephone having the digital camera under a state that the user holds the digital camera or the portable telephone having the digital camera.
It is a second object of the present invention to provide a digital camera and a portable telephone equipped with a digital camera in which an image located in the side of the face of a user and an image located in an opposite side to the face of the user can be photographed at the same time under a state that the digital camera or the portable telephone having the digital camera is held by a hand.
Further, it is a third object of the present invention to provide a digital camera and a portable telephone equipped with a digital camera in which while the digital camera or the portable telephone having the digital camera is held by a hand, an image located in the side of the face of a user holding the portable telephone and an image located in an opposite side of the face of the user can be photographed as a synthesized image.
Further, it is a fourth object of the present invention to realize a function for completing a camera mode only by closing a casing member of a foldable portable telephone under a state that the camera mode is operated and operating again the camera mode only by directly opening the casing member so that a shutter chance is not missed.